Digital Commons Network^™

Predicting Customer Churn In E-Commerce, Hind Tawfiq Kazim

Theses

Customer retention has become a critical focus for businesses seeking to sustain growth and profitability in an increasingly competitive market. In this thesis, advanced machine learning techniques are used to develop a data-driven churn prediction model for Majid Al Futtaim's customer base. In an e-commerce environment, the research focuses on identifying the key transactional and behavioral factors that influence customer churn, based on customer relationship management theory. The study is contextualized in the context of increased digital consumer engagement and high customer acquisition costs, which make retaining existing customers more cost- effective than acquiring new ones. Our primary research questions …

Hybrid Sentiment Analysis Of Police Social Media: Managing Big Data Impact On Youth, Alunood Yousuf Alamiri

Theses

The pervasive influence of social media has reshaped public communication, particularly for institutions like law enforcement agencies that rely on these platforms to engage with the community. As police departments increasingly utilize social media to disseminate information, interact with the public, and manage public relations, the need for effective sentiment analysis becomes crucial. Understanding how police messages are received by the public, especially by the youth, who are among the most active and impressionable users of social media, is essential for maintaining public trust and ensuring effective communication. This thesis, seeks to develop a comprehensive solution for this challenge. The …

Execution Of Commands Using An Ai Engine, Nixon Aw, Bryson Lee, Yufeng Zhuang, Anita Wan

Defensive Publications Series

One embodiment includes a method comprising: training an artificial intelligence (AI) engine with successfully executed prior action data; receiving, by the AI engine, a request to perform an action; identifying, by the AI engine, one or more attributes to execute the action; obtaining, by the AI engine, a confirmation of the one or more attributes; identifying, by the AI engine, a plurality of APIs to perform the action as defined by the one or more attributes; identifying, by the AI engine, a sequence of execution for the plurality of APIs to perform the action; and executing, by the AI engine, …

The Chinese American Experience, Katherine Chan Sorensen

2025 Symposium

This paper examines and identifies conflicts of second-generation Chinese Americans, focusing on the interplay of cultural values, gender roles, and societal stereotypes. Through an interview with Connor Chan, a 23-year-old Chinese American, the study illuminates the tension between traditional Chinese patriarchy and evolving American norms. Intergenerational conflicts arising from differing acculturation experiences are explored, highlighting the emotional strain of navigating two distinct cultural landscapes.

The research addresses the persistence of traditional gender roles, where male breadwinners are emphasized, contrasting with Americas idea of female empowerment. This dissonance creates internal and external pressures for second-generation individuals. Furthermore, the paper confronts the …

Effects Of Nicotine On Dopamine Signaling In Sprague Dawley Rats, Dominik Sretenovic, Kyle A. Marsh, Sabin Mulch, Gahnan Schaff, Anthony Jones, Sukhman Bains, David Daberkow

2025 Symposium

Nicotine influences dopamine (DA) release in the nucleus accumbens, a brain region associated with reward processing and addiction. This study examined nicotine’s effects on DA signaling using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) in anesthetized rats. Electrodes were implanted to stimulate DA release in the medial forebrain bundle and record signals in the ventral striatum. After administering saline or nicotine, DA levels were monitored in real-time, and electrode placement was later verified through histological analysis. Saline-treated rats showed minor DA fluctuations, with a peak signal detected at 50 minutes, while technical difficulties prevented complete nicotine data collection. However, previous experiments indicated significantly …

Investigating Empathy In Rats: Behavioral Responses To Distress, Isabella Sophia Avery, Kolette Stuhmer, Jeffrey Schell

2025 Symposium

INTRODUCTION: Empathy can be defined as the ability to recognize, understand, and match one’s emotional state to that of another. Previous research has suggested that emotional contagion produces empathetic responses among familiar rats when their cage mate is exposed to a stressor. This study seeks to further explore this relationship and compare responses among familiar vs. unfamiliar rats. METHODS: Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into cohorts including an observer, demonstrator, and stranger rat. The demonstrator was exposed to shock paired with a tone and the demonstrator, its cage mate, was only exposed a tone but no shock. The …

Washington Report: Aicpa Comments On Flat-Rate Income Tax And Alternative Tax Systems, Kenneth F. Thomas, William R. Stromsem

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Nigerian Democratization And Internal Party Contest For Leadership, Salihu Moh. Lukman

Journal of African Policy Studies

It was the American journalist and political commentator, Fareed Zakaria, in the book The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad, who argued that democratization everywhere is shifting power downward. According to him, the process of democratization goes far beyond politics and result in hierarchies, “breaking down, closed systems, are opening up, and pressures from the masses are now the primary engine of social change. Democracy has gone far from being a form of government to a way of life.” The role of political parties all over the world in facilitating the shift of power to the people …

The Political Economy Of Pension Reforms: An Analysis Of Policy Design And Practice In Ghana, Michael Kpessa-Whyte

Journal of African Policy Studies

There is a gradual move away in African pension policy from the hitherto predominantly pay-as-you-go social insurance schemes to new social security policies that prioritize private pension. But in African economies where capital market is underdeveloped and private sector is generally fragile, the shift to private pensions has implications for income security of the elderly. This study examines the design and practice of three-tier pension scheme with dual private pillars introduced a little over a decade ago. While discussing the various categories of private pension schemes that operate under the three-tier pension plan, it echoes the view that, the design …

Big Data As Potential Tool For Success In Developing Countries, Jean-Claude Pedjeu, Aurore J. Kamssu, Jeffrey S. Siepke-Sambo

Journal of African Policy Studies

Big data and the computer technology to analyze it are said to be one of the top 10 revolutions in the coming decade. While the developed world is making strides in the use of big data for decision making purposes, the Low-income countries (LIC) or poor countries and some medium-income countries (MIC) or developing countries are lacking behind in their collection and use of digital data to aid decision making. This is especially the case with many businesses and government agencies that have the potential to benefit in their policy designs and implementations from big data. The purpose of this …

Reinventing E-Governance Policy In Local Governments In Southern Nigeria, Robert A. Dibie, Maryam O. Quadri

Journal of African Policy Studies

This paper examines the extent to which electronic governance policy has contributed to more efficient service delivery in local governments in southern Nigeria. It also explores how e-governance practices has improved the relationship between citizens and local governments in southern Nigeria. It argues that despite the appropriation of funds for the purchase of computers and other electronic equipment in many local governments in the past three decades, the delivery of services in almost all the local governments under study has not improved. The paper uses data derived from questionnaire survey administered to local government staff in southern Nigeria. Two thousand …

Fear And Oxytocin: Effects Of Intraperitoneal Pretreatment In Rats, Daniel Yeromenko, Kelsie German, Eros Fuentes, Jenna Meade, Ben Bustos

2025 Symposium

INTRODUCTION: Oxytocin is a neuropeptide widely known for its role in social bonding and emotional regulation. Recent studies have suggested its involvement in modulating fear, stress, and anxiety responses, potentially offering therapeutic applications for trauma-related disorders such as PTSD. This study investigated whether pretreatment with oxytocin reduces behavioral and physiological fear responses in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats using a classical fear conditioning model. METHODS : Twenty-four Sprague-Dawley rats (12 males, 12 females) were assigned to one of four groups: control (no shock, no oxytocin), shock only, shock + low-dose oxytocin (0.5 mg/kg), and shock + high-dose oxytocin (1.0 mg/kg). …

Tax Clinic, Robert M. Rosen

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Irs Viewpoint: Abusive Tax Shelters: “Too Good To Be True”, Richard Wassenaar

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Tax Clinic, Leon M. Nad

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Sustainability In The Cruising Industry: Innovations In Air Quality, Energy Efficiency, And Waste Management, Fikret Durmus, Mi Ran Kim

ICHRIE Research Reports

The cruise industry, a cornerstone of the global hospitality and tourism sector, faces increasing scrutiny over its environmental impact. As passenger numbers grow, so does the industry's responsibility to adopt sustainable practices. This report examines key innovations in air quality management, energy efficiency, and waste management, highlighting the industry's transition from historically high emissions and waste production to advanced sustainability initiatives. Key focus areas include evolving maritime regulations, adopting cleaner propulsion technologies, integrating energy-efficient solutions, and improving waste treatment practices. Findings indicate that industry leaders are investing in liquefied natural gas engines, exhaust gas cleaning systems, and onshore power supply …

If They Chop Open My Body, Allie Stokes

Harpur Palate: a Literary Journal

No abstract provided.

The New 92? Lawful Orders, The Obedience Paradigm, And The Military As A Forum For Experimental Change In The Aftermath Of Trump V. United States, Kyra Ziesk-Socolov

Pace Law Review

Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice criminalizes defiance of lawful orders issued by superior military and civilian officials in a service member’s chain of command, while Rule for Court-Martial (R.C.M.) 916(d) provides procedural guidance for the assertion that a service member was acting pursuant to lawful orders as a criminal defense. These provisions are integral to maintaining good order and discipline within the military ranks and ensuring consistent and reliable implementation of operational and policy initiatives across the Department of Defense. The duty to obey lawful orders is closely circumscribed in the context of the military chain …

Lubin Business Review 2025

Lubin Business Review

No abstract provided.

Generation Transcritical Flow Influenced By Dissipation Over A Hole, M. Daher Albalwi

Yanbu Journal of Engineering and Science

Transcritical flow of a stratified fluid over an obstacle for negative forcing amplitude (hole) that generation upstream and downstream, connected by an unsteady solution is examined. In the weakly nonlinear, weakly dispersive regime, the problem is formulated in the forced Korteweg-de Vries-Burgers framework. This is done by including the influence of the viscosity of the fluid beyond the Korteweg-de Vries approximation. The results show that the influence of viscosity is crucial in determining various wave properties, including the amplitudes of solitary waves in the upstream and downstream directions, as well as the widths of the bores. We focused here on …

Genetic Algorithms From A Biblical Perspective, Richard L. Halterman Phd

The Journal of Biblical Foundations of Faith and Learning

The dominant opinion expressed by the scientific community is that life on earth as we observe it today evolved over millions of years from more primitive organisms. Its adherents insist that naturalist forces drive this process, and it is unaided by any form of intelligent oversight. In contrast, a biblical worldview upholds the Bible’s account of a six-day special creation by an all-powerful Creator. The competition between these two worldviews appears unresolvable. Complete resolution would require time travel to absolutely certify the winner. Indirect evidence can sway opinions, but individuals do not always apply sound logical reasoning when forming their …

Commencement: Conferral Of Doctoral Degrees May 19, 2025, New Jersey Institute Of Technology

Commencement Programs

Program for the commencement conferral of Doctoral degrees. The ceremony took place on Monday, May 19, 2025.

Commencement: Conferral Of Master’S Degrees May 19, 2025, New Jersey Institute Of Technology

Commencement Programs

Program for the commencement conferral of Masters degrees. The ceremony took place on Monday, May 19, 2025.

Engineering Hiv-1 Env Protein To Elucidate In Situ Structural Dynamics Of Env, Narendra Kumar Gonepudi

Biotechnology Theses

The HIV-1 Envelope (Env) glycoprotein trimers undergo structural changes upon interacting with host receptor CD4 and coreceptors (CCR5/CXCR4) for virus entry. As the only surface-exposed viral protein, Env is a key antibody target but evades recognition through structural changes. Studying Env dynamics with respect to the coreceptor binding region (V3 loop) provides insights into virus entry and immune evasion. Fluorescence labeling via genetic code expansion (amber–TAG suppression) offers a minimally invasive approach for fluorescence microscope-based Env dynamics studies. Here, two V3-related dual-amber Env constructs (A135_TAG-P308_TAG, P308_TAG-E395_TAG) were generated by incorporating two non-canonical …

Towards Multi-Modal Multi-Document Understanding Capabilities In Foundation Models, Chuhan Li

Computer Science Theses

Contemporary foundation models are predominantly evaluated on isolated documentor image-understanding tasks, thereby overlooking the inherent multimodal multi-document reasoning that characterizes scientific inquiry. To bridge this gap, M3SCIQA is introduced, aMulti-Modal,Multi-document Scientific Question Answering benchmark crafted to test foundation models in practical scientific research settings. A comprehensive evaluation of 18 leading foundation models shows a substantial performance gap between models and human experts. Detailed error analysis reveals persistent deficiencies in both scientific visual reasoning tasks and long-range retrieval. Addressing the former, SPACECUE offers a concise yet effective visual prompting that overlays grid coordinates and Semantic-SAM masks …

Towards Practical And Real-Time Decoding Of Quantum Hypergraph Codes, Binghong (Leo) Li

Computer Science Theses

Quantum error correction (QEC) enables scalable quantum computation by detecting and correcting physical errors. However, decoding remains a key bottleneck—particularly for quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) codes, whose hypergraph structures demand complex reasoning. Most existing decoders are either too slow for real-time use or lack formal guarantees, and often struggle to generalize across diverse quantum hardware.

This thesis introduces the Minimum-Weight Parity Factor (MWPF) algorithm, a unified and certifiable decoding formulation that extends minimum-weight perfect matching to general hypergraph-based stabilizer codes. We focus on making MWPF practical and performant through a two-phase decoding architecture, consisting of a fast search phase and …

B-Spline Representations For Hyperspectral Inverse Rendering, Rachel Liang

Computer Science Theses

This work explores the use of a B-spline-based approach for hyperspectral inverse rendering from RGB images, experimenting on both spectral and geometric reconstruction. While the B-spline method is less accurate than brute-force optimization, it offers significant improvements in computational efficiency- reducing both runtime and memory usage.

Our experiments show that the B-spline representation can approximate smooth spectral data effectively but struggles with sharper spectral features unless more knots are introduced. Notably, wavelengths near the edges of the visible spectrum (around 400 nm and 700 nm) were less stable during optimization, reflecting lower convergence reliability. Despite these challenges, the final RGB …

Exploring The Limits Of Multimodal Foundation Models For Visual Temporal Reasoning And Gesture Recognition Tasks, Ziyao Shangguan

Computer Science Theses

Multimodal foundation models (MFMs) have demonstrated impressive capabilities in static vision-language tasks such as image captioning, video summarization, and cross modal retrieval. However, their ability to reason over time—especially in gesture-rich video inputs—remains limited. This thesis investigates the temporal reasoning capabilities of MFMs in the context of gesture understanding, a critical component for enabling more expressive human-robot interaction. Through a preliminary study, we show that prompting-based strategies offer only marginal improvements in temporal reasoning, despite producing accurate frame-by-frame descriptions.

To more rigorously evaluate these limitations, we introduce TOMATO, a benchmark designed to assess visual …

Illinois State University Salaries Fy2025 Update, Illinois State University

Illinois State University Salaries

Includes two sections: administrative professional and civil service salaries, and non-tenure track, tenure track, and faculty associate salaries.

Sequence Conservation Of Suppressor Of Ikk Epsilon Phosphorylation Sites, Kaydence M. Isaacs

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Suppressor of IKK epsilon (SIKE) is a protein that is implicated in immune response signaling pathways. SIKE interaction networks suggest roles in cell motility and macromolecular complexes mediating kinase/phosphatase activity. In this project, we aim to better understand the function of SIKE by analyzing amino acid sequences across different species. In human SIKE, viral infection leads to phosphorylation of SIKE at defined serine residues. Comparing SIKE sequences, and specifically these phosphorylation sites, allows us to discover its ancestral connections to innate immune function. This has particular applications in bridging the evolutionary gap between fungi and metazoa SIKE sequences. Multiple sequence …